Archive for Community issues

The Westwood Planning Commission this week approved zoning text amendments that would create two new zoning district categories. The recommendation is expected to be taken up by the city council at its July meeting. The unanimous approval came after a public hearing and in the face of petitions signed by 423 residents asking that the […]

The Merriam Community Center and the municipal pool are in need of significant repairs in the next few years, a fact that the city council was presented with last month. Now comes the question of how to choose a course of action for their future. The 2016 city budget has $150,000 built in for a […]

United Community Services of Johnson County continued its multi-year focus on poverty in the county at Tuesday’s annual summit with a call to action for human service agencies to focus on work, education and the safety net. In Johnson County, 33,000 residents live below the federal poverty level, a number that has more than doubled […]

The ideas for future Westwood development that were unveiled last week by a multi-disciplinary group of experts in real estate and planning have already generated new conversations, according to Westwood Mayor John Yé. Some of those conversations have started among stakeholders who were interviewed by the group. Yé told city council members Thursday night that […]

The Merriam Community Center is not the only community asset that will need attention – and money – in the coming years. This week the Merriam City Council not only heard that the community center needs significant upgrades to keep it operating, but that the city’s aquatic center also must be put on the agenda […]

The Merriam Community Center needs immediate significant repairs within the next two years “to bring the building up to minimum life-safety and functioning standards,” the city council was told Monday. The price tag for those immediate repairs is estimated at $375,000 and must be completed in the next two years. “Some pretty serious upgrades need […]

A group of Prairie Village Homes Association homeowners have launched an effort to formalize design guidelines for renovations and rebuilds in a part of Prairie Village. The campaign comes after more than a year of work from the seven-member group, which formed in response to controversy over the size and design elements of many of […]

It’s a go. Mission will start its first farmers market this June. The Mission Farm & Flower Market will open on June 6 and continue to operate on Saturdays through September. To this point the city had been working on making the market a reality by trying to line up vendors who would commit to […]

The Westwood Planning Commission lined up against putting a senior housing project on the Entercom property early in its work session Thursday. Commission Chair Chris Ross early in the meeting asked the other five members attending to indicate if senior housing is acceptable for the nearly eight-acre Entercom property and if it would be an […]

Two years ago the Roeland Park Community Center appeared doomed for the wrecking ball. It was saved in part because of a groundswell of community opposition. And this week the City Council appears to have come full circle when it agreed to move forward with phase one of improvements to address deferred maintenance and other […]

The Merriam Community Center has a long history and with age come some maintenance problems. The community center building dates to 1911, opened as the first school in Merriam. It was purchased by the city, renovated and re-opened in 1990 as the community center – now the Irene B. French Community Center – using not only […]

Mission residents had their first opportunity Wednesday night to help shape the future of the city’s parks and recreation and its land use and development. The first set of public meetings in a months-long process that will update the city’s comprehensive plan and its parks and recreation master plan drew a steady stream of residents […]

The City of Mission is updating two critical planning documents that will guide city leaders in future decisions about housing, transportation, economic development and parks. To be sure the plans represent the true values and vision of the community as a whole, all Mission community members are invited to share their feedback during the process. […]

Spotlight on Local

The Bloomsbury Bistro is named after and inspired by the Bloomsbury Group of Virginia Woolf fame. Writersʼ artists, intellectuals, a loose collective of friends, began gathering on a weekly basis… more.